anika mari

Now that I’m in my new apartment in Portland, OR, I’ve had the itch to do something creative.  Watercolor seemed like a good medium to explore since my quarters are relatively compact, and I don’t need too much space to paint.

I really wanted to try out my new brushes and paper last night, so even though it was late before I could sit down and paint, I spent an hour on my first watercolor pattern.

Watercolor is one of the few art mediums I’ve never taken a formal class in, so I don’t really know all the “official” techniques.  Never the less, I had a lot of fun painting last night even if I didn’t do it “right”.  I love the feel of the paint brush on the paper, and I enjoy the color variations of watercolor.

I think it turned out reasonably well for my first unplanned attempt.  I’ve been thinking about trying gouache to achieve solid color coverage.  Depending on the pattern, I’d like to combine both traditional water color and gouache for textural contrast.

I’ve been experimenting with pixel patterns and more pixel patterns lately. After completing the last patterns that were traced from an original drawing, I started to think about the various ways that patterns can be created. I’ve been making repeat pattern designs for about a year and a half now. I’ve tried a few different end-results for the patterns including cut outs, the still in-progress wood burning project, and some notecards, but for the most part the process leading up there has been the same:

• draw designs, patterns, ideas in sketch book
• choose one idea and work with it by drawing several versions of the pattern
• if it’s good enough, import it in the computer and trace with illustrator
• then transfer design to make the final product

When I created my first pixel pattern it was a new experience for me that used a different set of steps. I didn’t have any final look in mind, I just opened a small Photoshop file and started making the pattern with little black squares. At the time it reminded me of making cut out paper snowflakes. I was working with only 1/4 of the final shape that would make up the pattern, and when I assembled it, the result was like unfolding the paper, revealing an unexpected and original shape every time. The process was also like sketching in the computer, consolidating the first few step listed above into one, and the end result is something very different than if I’d started out with an actual pen in hand.

Creating a successful pattern with a new technique is what inspired me to try yet another different technique when and idea for a new pattern popped into my head. I could “see” the new pattern in my mind’s eye. I wanted to make a pattern that would be composed of multicolored stripes with organic forms cut out of a solid white overlay. I could have easily taken the familiar route and started sketching some ideas out on graph paper, honing shapes and the composition until I was satisfied, then maybe use markers to try out a few color combinations before scanning a neat sketch and translating the design into a computer format.

The bug of inspiration had bitten, however, so instead I grabbed some scraps of colored paper that I still had from the note cards I made, some white paper and some scissors.

Inspired by the idea of the cut out snowflakes when I was working on the first pixel pattern, I decided to use a variation of the technique to make my “organic white cut out shapes”. I cut up the white paper into rough squares and cut simple shapes from the center corner. In my head I imagined creating beautiful complex many petaled flower shapes, so I was a little disappointed when most of the shapes looked very simple and few-petaled.

Honestly, I was so disappointed in my inability to create the shapes I could see in my head with this cut out method that I almost gave up a couple of times. It was easy and quick enough that I kept on going. I eventually made a few that were a little more interesting looking, and some that were too interesting and way off the mark for the result I was after.

In the end I had a sample of different cut outs that I was satisfied with, simple though they might be.

I arranged the strips of scrap paper together to create a composition of colored stripes, and arranged the cut out shapes over top the colored paper stripes. The finished project includes the white organic cut out shapes and the colored striped background of my original idea, though the final result is quite different from the specific pattern I’d envisioned.

I must admit though, that if I’d used my typical process that starts with the sketchbook, the result probably still would have been different from the initial vision. I find that often happens when I start a design from an idea; the design evolves as I work on it. By trying a new technique using only paper and no pens, the final result was certainly influenced by the nature of the chosen media. It evolved in a different way than it could have if I’d instead started with a pen and paper or paint and canvas or other process.

Despite the early frustration at the limitations I ran into with the cut paper shapes, it was fun to create a pattern in a new way. It’s a good start, and I think this technique is worthy of further exploration.

I tried my first pixel pattern and immediately got the idea to try to use to create a pixel pattern from one I’d designed using pen and paper. Since I’ve been using the cut leaves for a lot of other projects lately, I thought I’d continue the trend.

Just wanting to try it out, I selected one of the squares in the pattern to work from.

I created a new layer on which I could draw over the original, but correct mistakes. I filled in the pixels over the dark area of the pattern. When zoomed in on, there are many variations of gray at the edges of the original image, so to create the pattern only in black and white I used my best judgment to decide where to define the line. Before long I had the job finished.

I tiled it to see how it would work.

Seemed ok to me, but I had wanted to also make another version which would likely have a bolder look, just to try a different technique.

For the first try, I decided which blocks to color in black as I traced, depending on how dark the edge of the line of the original drawing was.

I made the decisions as I went, and sometimes it was rather arbitrary, but I tried to only trace over the parts that were a mid gray or darker.

For the second, bolder version, I colored all the pixels black that were even the slightest bit gray.

In effect this took the decision making out of the process, so if the end result turned out to look better, it would make tracing future patterns more straightforward. However, I’m on the fence about the results.

I’m not sure it looks all that much different from the first version. It’s slightly bolder, but I can’t completely decide which I like better.  When viewed full size the bold slightly wins over the delicate version, but then again, I keep changing my mind one minute to the next. I suppose I’ll have to decide what “rule” to follow for tracing each pattern as I trace it.

I completed a color variation, green on blue, for both the delicate and bold versions.

I think tracing an original drawing was a worthwhile exercise, but I’m not sure if I’d want to use these particular patterns for anything. They are just not quite “it” for me.

I was thinking that the black and white wrought iron pattern sketches that I developed while in Mexico might translate well to a pixel pattern. I’ll have to try that out.

I’ve visited this site now and again over the years and have browsed through and drooled over the patterns in their pixel patterns gallery. Now that I’ve been taken up by the spirit of pattern making, I decided to try out making a pixel pattern of my own.

I opened a new little (25 px square) photoshop document, and arbitrarily filled in individual squares with the pencil tool, taking care to keep symmetry along the diagonal.

When I was done I copied and pasted the 25px square image into a new 50px square photoshop document, copied the layer 3 times and rotated and placed each to finish the pattern motif.

When the motif is viewed full size, the pixels tend to blend together a little bit for softer look.

The real fun came when I put the pattern together. I selected the motif and defined it as a pattern, then opened a new photoshop document 550px x 600px, and filled it with my new pattern.

View it full size here.

For a quick variation I added a pink background.

Full size here.

I have an idea for how to translate my other pattern designs into pixel patterns which I’ll try out next.  I’m not sure how or if it will work, but even this first try was a fun quick way to make a pattern.

The process reminded me of making paper snowflakes.  Folding up a plain white square of paper, arbitrarily cutting little bits and pieces of various shapes away, then unfolding the holey paper to reveal the final creation.  Whenever I cut away pieces for a paper snowflake, I imagine how it might look when it’s unfolded.  My brain doesn’t work that way though, so I’m invariably surprised by the final result.

Same thing happened with this pixel pattern.  When I arbitrarily filled in the little squares on the canvas, I thought I had a vague idea of what it would look like, but discovered that it’s hard for me to picture the final result accurately when all I see are squares.

I’ll have to try it again and see what other designs I’d come with.  It would be cool if I could eventually have a little more control about what the final pattern would look like as I’m making it.

I’ve been working on my Wood Blocks project little by little and have made some notable progress from my last post.  I started again by burning in the lines that I’d copied onto the blocks with graphic transfer paper.

It took a while, but I eventually finished all the blocks.

With all the lines burned in, I didn’t have anymore time to stall about deciding how I would color in the positive space. I wanted the finished piece to have contrast of dark and light, and I also wanted it to be a neutral color palette, but I wasn’t satisfied with the results of the oil pastels and believe that trying to paint them would get to messy and drive me crazy. I tested out how the wood burner would color in wider areas of color if I used the side of the tool instead of the tip.

I liked the result, but I wasn’t sure how the wood burner would perform on the painted surface of the blocks, so I tried that out next on one of the old test blocks.

It worked pretty well, and I found it interesting that the paint wasn’t burned away but somehow stayed translucent over the burned surface. You can clearly see the effect by viewing the large version of this photo.

I had a little steam left after settling on burning in the positive areas, so I tried it on one of the proper blocks.

I messed up a little bit once, so there’s a spot outside the lines that’s burned, but I’ll try to fix it with some sand paper. That’s as far as I’ve gotten, and honestly I finished to that point a few weeks ago. I’ve been busy, and then I went to the beach. I’ll continue burning the rest of the blocks soon.